Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to alignment surface topographies for electro-active devices and more specific to methods of forming these topographies.
Background
Electro-optical devices may contain one or more liquid crystal (LC) layers. These layers are comprised of material which undergoes changes in its optical, electrical, and magnetic characteristics under an externally applied field. These layers are included in to electro-optical devices because visual changes in these devices occur due to different orientations of LC molecules during different states of device operation (e.g. completely ON-state, completely OFF-state, and many other different states in-between). Depending on the operation mode of the electro-optical device, the so-called field-free LC orientation (OFF-state) and a range of predetermined distributions can be distinguished from the LC orientations under the applied voltage (ON-state). For successful operation and performance of electro-optical devices, the LC material should be appropriately aligned during the field-free state.